And IMHO is In my humble opinion, VMMV is Your mileage may vary, and there are some other conventions. If you capitalize, you're SHOUTING. Specific to TMF (The Motley Fool) boards is LBYM, the Living Below Your Means board where the merry posters all rinse out and re-use their Ziplok (tm) plastic bags while all the time thinking of new ways to avoid spending their money too quickly. There's a lot of inside humor by now but you may find it infectious.

Joe Varga wrote:I never heard of "laughing out loud" In my book LOL = "Lot's of Luck"

Well way back when I first started this computer stuff I had this semi offical list of (had to be offical cause it was a computer program) abbreviations and it sure did include Laffing (sorry but I like this spelling better, but hey, I am weird) out loud.

However I cant find that software anymore and besides I like your definition better.

Mostly (at least in my case) it is used while chatting with someone on the internet as a response to indicate that you really got a chuckle out what someone just sent.

<<Here I am, getting ready to retire and looking forward to sharing thoughts, experiences and ideas with some other old Fools, but nobody's home.>>

Thoughtleader,This is strictly a guess but, I think the drought is a result of being unable to ask a question that may suggest we don't have all the answers. We tend to make a statement and back off which does not always elicit a reply.

Pre-retirement, we have not been asking the questions, we have been providing the answers. Now, in an effort to learn and to communicate, we have to ask questions or relate a difficulty and that has not been the norm for us.

We can get it going if we loosen up and ask or show and tell. Check other boards too. Some are off the wall to me -- ridiculous positions and arguments but the threads go on and on!Let me know what you think.H.

hotfoot wrote:We can get it going if we loosen up and ask or show and tell

Heck yes we can and we can even get it going by just posting fun messages or success stories or anything.

Heck it would be better to use this folder to fool around (non retirement subjects) than to just let it sit here idle. As far as I know (and from what I have seen on a few other folders) there is no rule about not having fun.

Now I would not suggest this for a folder that was getting a couple of hundred messages a day, but for one that is this quiet, well???

"This is strictly a guess but, I think the drought is a result of being unable to ask a question that may suggest we don't have all the answers. We tend to make a statement and back off which does not always elicit a reply. "

I think you make a good point, Hotfoot. IMHO, most of us who are 50-plus are not comfortable "chatting" online. In fact, I'm not that comfortable with computers period! But I'm sure as hell willing to grow in this area, if for no other reason than to make my 12 year old granddaughter proud of me.--TL

While I'm not retired (or even close) I started reading the posts here after reading through the board "Retirement Investing", which is a subject I follow. I just wondered what this one was all about... PP

If I may be so bold as to reply to peppermintpatty's #114, it seems to me that this board, like most of the Fool's boards, is and will become whatever the posters on it choose to make of it.

Personally, I like what I have been reading so far and I value what people have been telling me about their ways of living after full-time work. I have posted elsewhere that I am old at heart, and I work with people whose average seniority is 38 years, so perhaps I may be allowed to visit.

New old Fools, keep posting. You will almost certainly get thoughtful responses. Check out other boards. I'm by no means impartial, but Living Below Your Means on the Managing Your Finances folder offers a lot. You'll have to wade through a lot of banter from the cyber-friends, but there's a lot of good advice and new posters are genuinely welcomed.

Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with the Fool, I just think it is a resource we can all mutually help to improve.